The unlikeliest of heroes.
Disclaimer: The characters in this fic belong to J.R.R. Tolkien
"Doesn't a true hero face all she fears?" He had asked her when he had proposed and she had doubted. He had asked her ever so softly, looked up at her with so much fear in his eyes.
He needn't have feared: with one of those words he had won her heart.
She.
All she fears.
She tried to hold on to those words now.
She tried to hold onto the promises she had made to herself years ago, that she would never be a coward.
"Faramir?" She said, reaching out for him. "Faramir? Hold me… please… hold me."
He was with her in a second, his gentle hand brushing away the sweaty hairs from her face.
"Hold on, my love." He whispered softly into her ear, his voice thick with all the fears she did not allow herself to feel. "I have sent for Aragorn, he'll be here soon."
'Aragorn.' She thought.
Once she had believed he was the only hero good enough for her but that was a long time ago. Before she had ever laid eyes on this man, her husband, the one she loved…
"I don't want to die…" She whispered.
"You are not going to. If there ever has been anyone who can survive this… it is you." He said and she loved him.
He was so calm always. So strong in such a gentle way.
He gave her the strength she needed when pain took over her body once more.
He gave her hope, he made her believe that this was not the end…
Before another terrible wave of pain made her doubt again.
"Eowyn?" he whispered
She gathered her all her strength and smiled.
"Still here." She whispered back.
"Aragorn is coming, my love." He repeated, trying so hard to keep the despair out of his voice. "He is the best healer I know. You'll live."
Another wave of pain took hold of her and she suddenly knew it would soon be too late.
Aragorn would not make it in time.
"You…." She whispered. "Faramir… you have to do it…. Now."
She looked him into the eyes and saw how panic took hold of him.
She could see him doubt his own strength, like he always did.
It only lasted a second before he discarded it.
She kissed him, deeply, truly.
"You won't fail, my love." She said looking him into his eyes.
"No." he said. "I can't. The stakes are too high."
As his gentle hands worked and turned the baby inside her, she could finally push without killing it, without killing herself. She thought with a smile that her younger self would have thought him the unlikeliest of heroes.
Like she had once believed that a woman needed no courage to become a mother.
"Love.. Love…I can see the head, baby.. I can see the head.." His voice was thick with tears, of joy, of fear and she smiled through the pain.
What a silly girl she had been.